Drowning in your Flame
by Nyssa Bloodthorn
Summary: Alyssa kills and steals the identity of her estranged twin, in order to get revenge on the shapeshifter she believes is responsible for the murder of her soulmate.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: Night World is the property of LJ Smith, I'm just borrowing it for fun.  
Summary: A girl kills and steals the identity of her estranged twin, in order to get revenge on the shapeshifter she believes is responsible for the murder of her soulmate.  
Part 1  
  
She didn't care who thought she was crazy. No one she knew had been through what Alyssa had been through. Now she had finally figured it out.   
  
Two years might not seem all that long, though to Alyssa, it seemed more like two centuries. The loss of a soulmate, a murder with no explanation, could do that to a person.  
  
"You're going to get caught before you even get there."  
  
The voice was that of her supposed best friend Trisha. "I know you've suffered, but this is just insane."  
  
Alyssa stared out the window of her tiny apartment, not that there was really much to see. A vacant lot and a one-way street with a smashed-up abandoned car left outside her building. Some best friend, Alyssa thought moodily.  
  
She had wanted someone to talk to, someone who could understand, and who could you talk to if not your best friend? Now she realised what a mistake that was turning out to be. She turned to face Trisha dead on.  
  
"You look terrible," Trisha said sympathetically, venturing a step closer to Alyssa.  
  
Alyssa caught a glimpse of her reflection, distorted in a broken mirror. Strangely beautiful in it's own weird way. Her jagged face was sickly pale, more grey than pale peach. Her lips, normally full and sensual, were thin and tight. Her figure was slender, emphasized by the hip-hugging black leather pants and black top she wore. Her long red hair fell to jut beneath her shoulders. Enhanced with the beauty of the Night World, an admirer might view her as 'tragically beautiful'.  
  
Alyssa didn't feel beautiful at the moment. She eyed Trisha tiredly.  
  
"I'm sure you can come with me to Las Vegas, you'll really like everyone in Circle Daybreak, they're not all that bad."  
  
Alyssa had heard all this before. She'd ignored it every time and that didn't mean she was going to change her mind now. "I'm going through with my plan whether you like it or not. I thought you would understand."  
  
Trisha sighed with exasperation. She could see she wasn't getting anywhere. "You know I'm not going to let you out of here."  
Trisha stood in front of the apartment door, arms out, her large body blocking the way.  
  
Alyssa nodded calmly. "Yeah, I expected this." For the first time in months, she found herself relieved that Trisha was only human. She smiled coldly. "I can't let anyone stop me."  
  
She pulled a small black gun from behind a lamp on a near by coffee table, and calmly shot the girl who used to be her best friend, once in the face and once in the heart.  
  
Trisha didn't even have time to scream. She collapsed in a bloody heap, bits of her face splattering on the door and the walls. Alyssa was careful to move aside to avoid getting any blood on herself.  
  
She put the gun inside a small suitcase she had ready and waiting. Using her feet she managed to kick Trisha's body out the way enough to get out the door and lock it behind her.  
  
She smiled to herself, leaving the building. Merelyn was going to be in for one hell of a surprise.  
  
* * * 


	2. Part 2

Part 2  
  
"Has anyone heard /anything/?" Cleo paced up and down the meeting room of the Daybreak mansion in Las Vegas. Trisha was supposed to have been there yesterday evening.  
  
She apparently hadn't been attending her classes at Lake Meade high either. Trisha was one of those dedicated people who loved school and never missed. It was weird that she would just disappear.  
  
"This is Las Vegas," one of her teammates, Jed Blackthorn, who was sprawled out on a red couch, pointed. He was picking at a bunch of grapes on a near by table, sunlight through the large windows glinting off his blue-black hair. "Maybe Trisha hooked up and went for a night on the town."  
  
Denver Wynters snorted in contempt from her position, sitting on the large oak table, legs crossed at the knees. If her skirt was any shorter, it would be underwear. "Oh come on, this is /Trisha/," she snorted. "That girl doesn't even know what boys are for." She tossed a mass of curly blond hair over her shoulder, then took a compact mirror from the purse next to her and started reapplying her bright pink lipstick.  
  
Jed grinned. "Who said she hooked up with a boy?"  
  
Denver shook her head in disgust. "Grow up. Maybe there was some hapless person somewhere she couldn't resist saving."  
  
"Then she would have checked in," Cleo said. She paced around the room. Trisha was the most reliable member of their team. Maybe it had something to do with her being human. Trisha loved being a Daybreaker, she never put a foot out of line and this was so unlike her.  
  
"Have you guys called her house?" Jed asked with a roll of his dark brown eyes. He sounded bored, like he'd rather be anywhere but here. He'd never been all that fond of Trisha which Cleo couldn't understand. Everyone liked Trisha.   
  
"Of course," Cleo answered. "Several times. She hasn't been there, her parents are worried now."  
  
Denver shrugged. "She'll turn up, she always does. Are we here for any other reason?"  
  
Cleo couldn't understand what was the matter with these people. They were supposed to be Trisha's teammates and her friends, and yet here they were being callous and uncaring and completely unbelievable. They were supposed to be Daybreakers but they weren't acting like it at the moment. "Not really, I just wanted to see if you guys knew anything."  
  
They both shook their heads. Jed stood up stretching his limber body. "Can we go then?"  
  
Denver hopped off the table, nodding. "Some of us have lives besides Circle Daybreak, you know."  
  
"Fine, go," Cleo snapped. Cleo was starting to wonder if she was the only one who cared that Trisha was missing. Just because everyone seemed to like her didn't mean they'd throw themselves in when she disappeared. That was how it looked to her, anyway.  
  
Both Denver and Jed left her alone. Not long after they'd gone Lady Hannah joined her. "We've heard news that Alyssa Redfern is missing as well. She was Trisha's best friend, wasn't she?"  
  
Cleo nodded. "What does that tell us?" she asked with a sigh.  
  
Hannah shrugged, smiling reassuringly. "Well for one thing, Alyssa was really heart broken after Eli's death, wasn't she? Maybe Trisha took her into Vegas to cheer her up."  
  
Cleo sighed. Okay, that was kind of possible, she had to admit that. "It's just that I'd like to be sure Trisha's okay, is all."  
  
"I'm sure she's fine."  
  
* * * 


	3. part 3

Part 3  
  
The feeling had been like nothing Sherry had ever experienced before. She had been so nervous she didn't think she would be able to pull it off. Ever since the first time vampires had terrified her. Being able to actually /stake/ one of the monsters...  
  
Well, it had been like on TV, they didn't go 'poof' and turn into dust. And a good thing for her, it hadn't been icky like on that old movie, /The/ /Lost/ /Boys/. The vampire Sherry had staked had sort of - just withered into a pile of bones, his skin had dried up and become leathery.  
  
With help from her instructor, they'd disposed of the corpse. It hadn't been as hard as Sherry would have thought.  
  
"So how do you feel now?" Aisling Hill, her mentor, asked when they reached his apartment. A pent house in the rich part of town he lived in. She dropped her jacket on his red suede couch, rolling her shoulders.  
  
"Sore. I guess all that training paid off."  
  
Aisling smiled, heading for a room he'd set up as a gym, placing the stakes he'd concealed around himself back in a wooden trunk full of weapon. Sherry smiled, leading against the door.   
  
"It wasn't him, though."  
  
Aisling looked up at her, his head tilted to one side. "It's highly unlikely that the first vampire you stake will be the one you want to get."  
  
Sherry shrugged, wincing. She must have pulled a muscle during the fight. Then again, she had gone for the shock method, the vamp hadn't put up that much of an attack. She'd been about to kiss him, when she'd pulled the stake on him. Maybe one of the oldest tricks on the book, but for a vampire hunter's first kill, it wasn't bad.  
  
"I'm positive Merelyn Redfern was involved in this. Hell, that bitch was the one who set everything up." Sherry scowled at her reflection in a mirror on the wall opposite the gym room.  
  
The ordinary girl-next-door type, tall and thin, acceptable dresser, ordinary brown hair worn loose to just below her shoulders, unremarkable green eyes. With a crowd, she just blended in. No one at her high school really knew who she was. Maybe that was what made her a target for Merelyn and her bitch squad.  
  
"Yeah, we're going to have to work on that," Aisling said, heading for the kitchen. "Merelyn Redfern can't just vanish. People would notice and the Night World mafia would be on us before we knew what was happening."  
  
The thought of the Night World as a mafia was kind of funny, but in another way, it made a weird sort of sense. Sherry was still having a hard time trying to accept that a bunch of vampires, witches and shapeshifters lived amongst regular people. The good news was that there were people like her and Aisling who could /do/ something about it.  
  
"I don't see how. It's so unfair that the popular crowd can get away with everything. And I'll bet it's not just the Night People. It's so pathetic! And the truth is hardly anyone really *likes* then anyway."  
  
Aisling smiled faintly, bushing his blond bangs out his eyes. "Life sucks, so does high school, but you have to deal with it. I'll cheer you by finding out another vamp to kill."  
  
Sherry brightened. "Yeah, okay, you do that. Call me when you do." She waved goodbye and headed home.  
  
Maybe being a nobody when you're a vampire hunter was a good thing. The Night People wouldn't know who you were until it was too late. Aisling had never disappointed her before. It seemed unlikely that he would this time.  
  
* * * 


	4. Part 4

Part 4  
  
"I'm bored," Merelyn complained, adjusting the top of her red bikini, stretching long legs out on the sun-lounger in the backyard by her private pool.  
  
"You're always bored," her best friend Kalinda said with a chuckle, rubbing suntan lotion on her arms.   
  
"Kill something, that always eases boredom," Xylia, her other friend offered, smiling lazily from the shadows of a group of palm trees.  
  
Kalinda looked at Xylia, shaking her head of bouncy red curls with disgust. "That's your solution to /everything/ these days. You're going to get caught and executed. And from what I hear, Council executions are extremely painful."  
  
Xylia's laugh was deep and disturbing. "I never get caught."  
  
Merelyn's eyes rolled. "And the whole /point/ of sunbathing isn't to sulk in the shadows and were nothing but /black/. Aren't you sweating?"  
  
Xylia shrugged, looking down at the black jumpsuit she was wearing, tight enough to show off her slender figure and body curves. "I don't have body temperature. Neither do you, so what are you complaining about."   
  
Merelyn didn't comment. Xylia did have a point.   
  
"It's okay for you blood suckers to comment about no body temperature, so how about some sympathy for those of us that do?" Kalinda grumbled.   
  
"Yeah, it must be just /so/ hard to have the power of magic at your fingertips," Xylia said with a snort.  
  
Merelyn's eyes rolled. She didn't comment. She glanced back at her parent's mansion. "Where the /hell/ are our cocktails, it's been half an /hour/!"  
  
"About five minutes, actually," Xylia said. Merelyn ignored her and disappeared into the house.  
* * *  
  
Alyssa tossed the two withered bodies into the basement, while she changed into Merelyn's red bikini. Then she hid the corpses in a large trunk with a lock. One hapless housemaid, the other Merelyn.   
  
Smoothing down her shoulder length black hair she went upstairs and picked up the trey with the cocktails on. Here we go she thought with a smirk.  
  
* * *  
  
Alyssa looked around Merelyn's room, not sure she looked the choice of red décor. Red sheets, darker red wall paper, dark oak furniture with slashes of gold. The lights were dim and seductive. To Alyssa the whole looked like the set of a bad porn movie, the whole mansion did.   
  
But that didn't matter. She was here now, and so far, her plan was working perfectly. No one suspected anything different about Merelyn. She knew everything she needed to know. She had studied long and hard. Merelyn was her only link to Eli's murderer.   
  
Merelyn had never understood her, no one had. They had made her suffer beyond measure, she was the only one - well, she and the perpetrators - knew what had been done to her. But she was here now and would get her revenge.  
  
She was interrupted from her thoughts by a knock on the door. An attractive maid held out a silver tray with a delicate china tea pot and a matching up and pitcher of milk. Also a phone. "It's Julius on line 3."  
  
"Thanks Alba," she said, taking the tray and closing the door on her maid's face.  
  
She put the tray down on the antique writing desk and picked up the phone, switching onto line 3. "Hey, I was thinking we'd meet up later at the Gash," Julius Keller said, sounding smug and confident.   
  
"Sure, but won't Raiden be there?"  
  
Julius laughed. "Raiden's coming. So is everyone."  
  
Alyssa forced herself to remain calm. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to do what she'd come here to do. But as much as she hated to admit it was too soon. She needed to establish herself as Merelyn before she did anything stupid.  
  
"Come on Merry, think of the fun." There was a noticeable /tone/ in the way Julius said the words.   
  
Alyssa sighed. "O/kay/ I'll be there. See you." She hung up, extremely pleased with herself.  
  
Who knew, she might even get to like Merelyn's life.  
  
* * * 


End file.
